DI: Well, I think all of us, in fact, 100 percent of us on the last days just before landing, must have had (much) going through our minds because you could sense the change. The first few weeks, you had a lot of activity: gambling, and singing, and carousing. But the last week gambling became a rarity, there was very little singing, people were just quiet. And you would see them standing on the deck looking out into the horizon and obviously thinking, doing a lot of thinking, and among that thinking was, "I hope I do well. I hope I do well." In fact, after our first battle, the encounter with the enemy, and we got together. I'm a curious fellow, so I asked each one of them, "What were you thinking about just before we got into battle?" Because we know at what point you're going to cross the line of departure and you know that at a certain point they're going to start shooting at you. What were your thoughts? And everyone had the same answer in a different way. One would say, "Boy, I hope I don't bring shame." Another would say, "I hope I do well. I hope I don't become a coward." It was something like my father said to me just before I got on the truck to leave. He said, "Whatever you do, don't dishonor the country or dishonor the family." And that's what it was. And for men of my generation, bringing shame upon the family or dishonoring the family was an important thing.

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